12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
ZECHARIAH 12:10-11 and 13:1
I will pour out on the house of David
and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem
a spirit of grace and supplication.
They will look on me, the one they have pierced,
and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child,
and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great
as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon
in the plain of Megiddo.
Zechariah is a book that consists of two parts. The first (chapters 1-9), by Zechariah, dating around 520-519 BC, is concerned with the reconstruction of the Temple and with messianic salvation prospects.
The second (chapters 9-14) is a rather heterogeneous collection from the late 4th century, where important messianic passages are found because the figure of the humble and gentle Messiah, “pierced”… appears, which harmonize with the figure of Christ and are cited in the New Testament (Matthew 21; 26; 27. Mark 14. John 19).
These “prefigurations” of Jesus are found by the Church “a posteriori”. The Jews were very fond of verifying that “the Scripture is fulfilled”. It may seem to us perhaps that Scripture is so rich, so varied, and so contradictory that we can find in it “announcements” of almost any event.
In any case, it has been a traditional reading of the Church to interpret in this way the moment when Jesus is pierced in the side with a spear, following the interpretation of John: “they will look on the one they have pierced”.
GALATIANS 3:26-29
For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
It contains a long argument about the Law and Faith. The Law of Moses is presented as a pedagogue who takes care of the faithful while they are children. But the arrival of Jesus has made us Sons, we are no longer under the Law. All this comes in the context of the eternal dispute with the Judaizers who claimed that Christians should submit to the Jewish Law and circumcision, propaganda that had reached the Galatians.
For us, this controversy over the Law of Moses and the Good News of Jesus has lost the meaning and importance it had for the early Church, but it retains another, deeper meaning: the difference of the Spirit of Jesus from the religiosity of the Old Testament, which is not infrequently the one we still profess.
In the context of the passage we read today, there are some other very well-known expressions of Paul, which we include here so that we can meditate on them. It would be a wonderful prayer to read these paragraphs, very slowly, savoring them.
The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
(Ga 4:1-7)
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
(Ga 5:1)
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
(Ga 5:13-14)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
(Ga 5:22-25)
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J